Bexley Speaking UP Group Newsletter Summer 2023

Bexley Speaking Up Group Newsletter

A fond farewell to Forest

Break a leg

What music stands for

Being a health ambassador

Trip to Pooh Corner

Celebrating with Bexley Twofold

Bexley Housing Advocacy Project

Wordsearch

A Fond Farewell to Forest

Duncan recently said goodbye to his very loved dog, Forest.

Duncan and his brother, Adrian, wrote some memories of Forest. They also welcomed words from their friends and

I love you running for the apple in the park

You guarded our house day and night for me and Adrian you loved being at the allotment

all the woodwork money I made went towards paying your vet bills and your food.

Forest, you bought much happiness to the world especially to Duncan, we’ll miss you.

Break a Leg

by Duncan

On the 10 January I was walking in the park with Forest, my dog. It was muddy and I slipped. I heard a bone snap in the bottom half of my leg. I got home and ran cold water over it and raised my leg to ease the swelling. I did first aid training in 1993!

My brother and a friend came to help me. My brother brought his scooter to help with movement. I went to my brother’s house and kept my leg raised. In the morning I went to the Urgent Care Centre in Erith and had an x ray.

Candy, the nurse said I had fractured the fibia in my right foot. I was put in a plaster for a week. Then I went to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, to the orthopaedics to have a doctor check the fracture.

My brother said thank you for the quick response; we were not there very long. The NHS did it with flair!

I was in my plaster cast for 6 to 8 weeks. I drank tea and ate salads and kept moving so that my blood didn’t clot. I was given an injection to keep my blood circulating.

After 5 weeks my plaster came off and I went to Queen Elizabeth Hospital to see if I needed to stay in plaster or not.

The doctor said it didn’t have to so the plaster came off.

CASTAWAY!

The doctor said I needed physio; I need to be able to go up and down stairs before I can go home. I have about 4 or 5 exercises to relieve the pain. I now have my freedom back.

My next physio appointment will be at Queen Mary’s Hospital in June and I will find out if I am discharged or not.

My brother made a video for YouTube and I sang the lyrics. Use this link to watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aj4OZI4cg8

I felt silly that I fell over as I was doing power walk on mud.

Having my brother with me helped. it’s quicker and smoother when he’s with me; I can’t always retain the information.

I felt time went quickly and I have no regrets. What’s done is done. I’ll put it down to experience.

Thank you to my brother.

My advice is don’t hesitate. Seek advice it could get worse.

Part 3: What Music Stands for by

Chris

Going back to my school years, in the summer we used to have fetes. I met up with a guy who is no longer with us and I used to help him do the music for the fete. His name was Dennis. He used to work at Radio Erith. The building is still there but the studio isn’t. When the fete was finished I helped Dennis put everything away in his car.

There was an incident which took place in the school garage. I wanted to see if I could get the old disco lights down that were made by Gravel Hill Grammar School in the early 80s. I tried and tried to get it down and eventually it came down and fell on the floor. In 1985 I wanted to have them as a going home present as a reward for all the discos I did at school.

When I was 16 I started going to college at Toynton Hall in Lincolnshire where apart from doing coursework I became a college DJ and I had to do a test. The first time I failed and I failed the second time but third time I passed. I did a lot of discos at Toynton Hall and I had the time of my life.

In December 1985 we had a huge Christmas Party and I had a slot between 3.30pm to 6.45pm.

In 1986 I had my Dad’s old Amstrad hi-fi and I started experimenting. I was doing things I’ve never done before. I was a very clever person, as I’ve never done anything like that before.

In 1990 I went to Carlton Road Resource Centre. Someone had bought a mono disco which we had for 2 years. Then Colin bought a proper disco from Audio House in Welling and installed it in a disco booth. Later on my dad went to Audio Hall and bought 2 CD players that were stuck together.

In September 1992 we christened the new disco unit and we celebrated by having a party and I DJ’ed through the whole evening. I even found an old Boombox. I put that in the disco booth as well and wired it up to the disco unit.

We also had members discos at Carlton and I used to help. We used tape recorders, a mixer, an amplifier and speakers. Eventually I used Carlton’s speakers and the disco lights in the ceiling.

In 1999, just before the millennium I remember doing a huge new years eve party. It was the only one we had and while my dad was setting up the fireworks I was playing music in the hall. The party went on to 2.30am.

I got paid £500 and that was my biggest disco yet.

Being a Health Ambassador

by Sunny and Duncan

Hello, we are Sunny and Duncan. As health ambassadors we went out to different places to show how health services can be made better for people with a learning disability

We learnt many skills:

 being committed

 listening

 learned to challenge

 engage and talk to people with a learning disability who may need support to communicate their needs

 being punctual

 easy read

We also learnt to sell ourselves in a crowd and how to use zoom. We need to carry on using our skills to help people. We did as much as we possibly could.

At Bromley Library we did an Indian dancing session. Not many people came. We learnt that we need to advertise more.

Sunny says:

it’s very important to carry on this project. If more funding was available we would continue with the project.

 to help improve the lives of people with a learning disability.

 educating health people

 inspiring health colleagues

 to go to places to talk about inspiring people

We worked like a family, helping each other. We are professional, calm and relaxed.

Duncan says:

We want people to have confidence in themselves.

We think the health ambassadors should continue:

 to have more hours to work on the project

 to reach more people

 to work in more boroughs

 to share people’s attitude

visit our youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/@biggervoices/featured

Trip to Pooh Conner, Pooh Bridge and Pooh House

by Mark

In April it was my partner Jayne’s birthday and I wanted to give her a nice birthday weekend.

We looked at a Disney themed birthday weekend and we decided to go to Pooh Corner. It was the home of AA Milne, the author of the original Winnie the Pooh books. The house is now a museum and tea room as a memorial to AA Milne.

There is also Pooh Bridge and Pooh House in the woods that were in the Pooh books.

We got up early and started our journey. We went to London Victoria, got our second train to East Grinstead. Then we got a bus to Hartfield Village where Pooh Corner is. Jayne used her disability freedom pass and I only paid £4 for the return journey.

It took 30 minutes to get to Hartfield Village, we arrived at Pooh Corner at lunch time. The owner and the staff were really helpful and we got a nice seat in the tearoom. We had some nice Winnie the Pooh themed lunch on Winnie the Pooh plates.

Then we looked round the free museum dedicated to AA Milne and the books of Winnie the Pooh. When the books were written there was no link to Disney.

After going around the museum we learnt about the link to Disney. Walt Disney’s daughter loved the original books. Walt Disney and AA Milne developed a partnership.

After looking in the shop, Jayne wanted to buy some things. Jayne is not a museum person like me, but we both loved this small and nice museum.

After that we wanted to go and see Pooh’s House in the woods. The walk was 2 to 4 miles. The owner of Pooh Corner knew that Jayne had a walker and told us that the walk was muddy. Jayne wanted to try, so we did.

And we made it!

The mud was too thick for Jayne to use her walker.

At one point I folded up Jayne’s walker and carried it in my left hand whilst holding Jayne’s hand in my right. At some point it was so thick we both slipped in the mud! We were covered from head to toe.

But we made the hike back to Pooh Bridge and Pooh House.

We got lost for about 30 minutes as the map was not clear at one of the turnings. Jayne thinks we missed the key turn from the map given. So we used technology and used google maps to take us to the final destination of Pooh Bridge.

We both ached by that point, so we had a nice rest at Pooh Bridge.

We then headed back to Pooh Corner to return home. We knew it was downhill on the way back. The tearoom was just closing so we headed for the bus stop to take us to East Grinstead Station to do the return journey.

For those of you that are interested in visiting look at their website for all the details. Also you can go to YouTube to watch the video that inspired us to make the trip.

https://www.poohcorner.co.uk/

Celebrating with Bexley Twofold

Duncan received a certificate being in work at Danson House helped by Bexley Two Fold.

s manager, Jane Collins, Anna's boss and Jane a member of staff came to support Duncan,

Tracy Dowling helps Duncan at Bexley Two Fold. She's not in the photo. It was a nice surprise for Duncan with everyone

Stephen also got a certificate, celebrating 17 years of employment in the waste department at the council. When he started working there he had a temporary contract. Every 6 months the contract was renewed until he got a permanent

Bexley Housing Advocacy Project

by Ian and Melissa

We are starting a new project helping people with Autism to get onto the right path to find their next home in Bexley.

We want to support anyone who would like to

 buy their own home

 rent privately

 register with Bexley for social housing

 swap home in Bexley

We can help you with

 support to understand your housing options

 support to apply for housing

 information about being a tenant and paying bills

 support to prepare for moving

The project came about because our Bexley self-advocacy group members often come across big barriers when they tried to move house and wanted support to navigate all the options.

Our members said:

I have been speaking with friends and other members of the speaking up group and they are also receiving no support for moving home

There are no obvious signposts of where to go. Going to the council is a right nightmare. I came out of there none the wiser when I went to the council. Like I am confused, what is bidding about?

Finding what is available within the local area, what the person can afford.

Being able to discuss and evaluate different options of housing will help lower anxiety and stress!

We now have Melissa to help us in Bexley but as the issue seems to be so important when discussed with others, the long-term goal is to try to make this national.

Turn the page to see our leaflet with more information and how to get in touch

Turn the page to see our leaflet with more information and how to get in touch